Friends

I had such high hopes as I waited for the slot to load. I could think of a million ways the game could have been designed to really encapsulate the iconic TV show. So you can imagine my disappointment when the grid that filled my screen was something that strongly resembled an amateur slot design from a couple decades ago.

The photography and graphics aren’t exactly what you’d call sharp, which are a large part of why the slot has a slightly cheap feel. The backdrop is the New York skyline, which takes up the majority of the screen, leaving the unnecessarily small grid to float in the middle. The symbols are a combination of photographs of the characters, and other rendered symbols like Joey and Chandler’s duck, Phoebe’s guitar and a Central Perk coffee cup. Those that didn’t watch each episode religiously may very well miss the significance of some of the symbols.

The only real slot personality emerges when you land the Wheel Bonus feature, where you’ll be treated to episode clips after each spin. Exactly as you’d expect, the show’s “I’ll Be There For You” theme song plays on loop in the background. Bizarrely, it’s an instrumental version, which kind of steals away what magic is left.

The gameplay is exceptionally easy to follow. That’s because despite the fact that there are a number of bonuses which could become activated, most of them stem from the same special feature. Here’s how the friends unite to boost wins:

The game’s symbols come in at just about average in terms of value, and the Medium volatility ranking means that you’ll make winning combinations on a fairly regular basis. The guitar, Central Perk sign, ducks, coffee cup, and character symbols will fetch anything between 2 x and 15 x for 5 of a kind.

The image of Chandler, Ross and Joey together pays between 5 x and 25 x, while the three girls symbol pays 5 x to 30 x. The group photo of all the characters pays out between 8 x and 40 x for winning combinations. If you land a full stack of Jackpot Wild symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 then yell a big hooray because that means you’ve unlocked the slot’s top prize in the form of a 2000 x your stake Jackpot.

Outside of waiting (and hoping) to land the jackpot, any other chances of decent wins are tucked away behind the Wheel Bonus, which is also the most entertaining part of the game. It doesn’t come around as often as I’d hoped, and you aren’t necessarily guaranteed a massive prize, but you’ll usually make up your bet spend in the least.